PATTO’S BRAVE ACT

STABBED HERO IS AL­WAYS THINK­ING OF OTH­ERS

A TAS­MA­NIAN man stabbed in the head dur­ing the Bourke St ter­ror at­tack says his thoughts are with the other vic­tims and po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved as he re­cov­ers.

Rod Pat­ter­son, 58, who has homes in Launce­s­ton and Mel­bourne af­ter re­tir­ing ear­lier this year from his Au­to­barn busi­ness in Tas­ma­nia, was hurt when he tried to help a vic­tim.

“I went to as­sist and whilst do­ing so re­ceived a knife wound to my head,” he said from his hospi­tal bed.

Mr Pat­ter­son, above, was with his wife in the city on Fri­day when the at­tack hap­pened.

“Whilst out with my wife Ma­ree en­joy­ing an­other great day in Mel­bourne, a city that we love, we were un­for­tu­nately caught up in the in­ci­dent on Bourke St,” he said.

“I am re­ceiv­ing fan­tas­tic care at The Al­fred. We both ap­pre­ci­ate ev­ery­one’s sup­port dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time, and our thoughts are also with the other vic­tims, fam­i­lies and po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved.”

The South Launce­s­ton Foot­ball Club wished its for­mer pres­i­dent and life mem­ber a speedy re­cov­ery.

“Patto was hurt try­ing to as­sist oth­ers, which demon­strates his heroic na­ture, that we have come to know and love,” the club said.

ROD Pat­ter­son moved to help one of the vic­tims — and was stabbed in the head by Bourke St ter­ror­ist Has­san Khalif Shire Ali.

The Tas­ma­nian, who re­cently re­tired af­ter sell­ing his Launce­s­ton Au­to­barn fran­chise and spends time in Mel­bourne to be closer to his chil­dren, is re­cov­er­ing in The Al­fred Hospi­tal.

“I went to as­sist and while do­ing so re­ceived a knife wound to my head,” he said yes­ter­day from hospi­tal.

He said his thoughts were now with the other vic­tims and the po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved.

Mr Pat­ter­son, 58, had been out with his wife in the city when the at­tack hap­pened.

“We both ap­pre­ci­ate ev­ery­one’s sup­port dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time, and our thoughts are also with the other vic­tims, fam­i­lies and po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved,” he said.

Mr Pat­ter­son’s son Todd said his fa­ther was do­ing well de­spite his trau­matic ex­pe­ri­ence and surgery.

“Dad is fine and will re­turn to full health,” he said.

Friends of Mr Pat­ter­son said he had re­cently re­turned from a once-in-a-life­time over­seas trip to cel­e­brate his re­tire­ment.

His friends la­belled him a com­mu­nity hero with a mas­sive heart who self­lessly put oth­ers first.

South Launce­s­ton Foot­ball Club pres­i­dent Felic­ity Viney said Mr Pat­ter­son was a stal­wart of the club.

“In every facet of his life, he has never been a by­stander so that as­pect doesn’t sur­prise me at all,” she said.

“He will al­ways lend a hand, even at his own ex­pense.”

And on its Face­book page, the club said; “Patto was hurt try­ing to as­sist oth­ers, which demon­strates his heroic na­ture, that we have come to know and love.”

Tas­ma­nian Cham­ber of Com­merce, and In­dus­try chief ex­ec­u­tive, Michael Bai­ley, has known Mr Pat­ter­son for about 25 years.

“I was talk­ing to my wife that if there was any­one we knew that was likely to be the sort of per­son to jump in and pro­tect the com­mu­nity, Rod Pat­ter­son would be the num­ber one per­son,” Mr Bai­ley said.

La­bor State Franklin MP and for­mer South Launce­s­ton foot­baller David O’Byrne de­scribed Mr Pat­ter­son as a “big­hearted nat­u­ral leader of peo­ple” who worked tire­lessly for his com­mu­nity whether it was as a fire­fighter early on in his ca­reer or suc­cess­ful busi­ness op­er­a­tor.

“You wouldn’t wish this sort of at­tack on any­one but if it was go­ing to hap­pen, you would want some­one like Rod Pat­ter­son with you,” he said.